Strand winding mechanism

ABSTRACT

In a strand winding mechanism of the kind in which a traversing ring rail carries ring and traveler mechanisms for laying strands on upright winding spindles, improved packages are obtained by pivotally tilting the rings during traversing of the rail, preferably from one direction and angle of tilt to the opposite direction and angle of tilt at the beginning of each up and down traverse stroke of the rail.

United States Patent 11 1 In] 3,910,024 Ernst Oct. 7, 1975 [54] STRAND WINDING MECHANISM FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS lm'emori Walter Emrft, Guttingen, Thurgau, 200,972 12/1958 Austria 57 75 am Switzerland 168,864 3/1906 Germany 57/75 183,616 4/1907 Germany 57/75 [73] Ass'gnee' Ernest Scragg & Sons 800,555 8/1958 United Kingdom..... 57/75 Macclesfield, England 901,411 7/1962 United Kingdom 57/75 22 Filed: Dec. 26, 9 566,962 9/1957 ltaly 57/75 [21] APP]' 428,612 Primary Examiner-John Petrakes Attorney, Agent, or FirmM:ichael S. Striker [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 22, 1972 United Kingdom 59353/72 [57] ABSTRACT In a strand winding mechanism of the kind in which a [52] US. Cl 57/75; 57/156 traversing ring rail carries ring and traveler mecha- [51] Int. Cl. D01H 1/02; DOlH 7/64 nisms for laying st n n p gh w g spindles, [58] Field of Search 57/75, 156, 157 R; improved packages are obtained by pivotally tilting 242/175, 178 the rings during traversing of the rail, preferably from one direction and angle of tilt to the opposite direc- [56] References Cit d tion and angle of tilt at the beginning of each up and UNITED STATES PATENTS down traverse stroke of the rail.

3,702,528 11/1972 Hartley, Jr. .f. 57/75 7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures US. Patent Oct. 7,1975

lralmlll F/GZ STRAND WINDING MECHANISM This invention relates to a strand winding mechanism of the so-called ring rail type, in one well-known kind of which strand material such as a yarn, thread or filament is wound on to a bobbin mounted on an upright rotating winding spindle, the strand passing to the rotating bobbin via a traveller which is slidable on a guide ring carried on a ring rail which is caused to traverse by rising and falling.

The traveller guide ring encompasses the rotating bobbin, and turns of the strand are wound along the length of the bobbin as layers, as the ring rail traverses, so that a package of the strand material is built up on the bobbin as winding progresses. It has also been proposed, in winding mechanisms of this type, to have rotatable rings and stationary bobbins.

Disadvantages of strand winding mechanisms of this type include a tendency for bunches of strand turns to occur at the ends of each layer of turns because the ring rail decelerates and halts momentarily at each end of its stroke before reversal of movement and acceleration up to normal traverse speed. These bunches interfere with the free winding of the strand from the package. Furthermore, the uniformly repeating traverse stroke of the ring railtends to cause a surface pattern of ridges on the package due to the laying of parallel strand turns one upon another, and this also can interfere with free unwinding of the strand. Also the package has to be wound under yarn tensions sufficiently high to prevent turns of yarn from sloughing from the package end regions, and when winding crimped yarn into packages the tensioned yarn tends to lose crimp if the packages are stored for any length of time.

British Patent Specification 800555 proposes to have the traveller guide ring tilted relative to the axis of a winding spindle, during traversing of the ring rail, the angle of tilt being set to be between 2 and with the object of effecting cross-winding and producing a more relaxed package. This specification further proposes that the angle of tilt may be varied slightly during winding.

According to the present invention in a strand winding mechanism of the ring rail type, means are provided for effecting pivotal tilting movement of the rings relative to the winding spindle axes during the traversing motions of the ring rail, to provide that in successive traverse strokes the planes of the rings are at a different angle to the spindle axes.

The relative pivotal tilting may be effected from one direction of tilt to the opposite direction of tilt and may be effected at any time in each traverse stroke but preferably at the beginning of the respective up and down traverse strokes of the ring rail, the direction of tilt then being maintained during the remainder of each traverse stroke, although the angle of tilt may be varied slightly during each stroke if desired.

The tilt angle may be up to 10, but different tilt angles may be optimum for different yarns, for example a tilt angle of 4 gives satisfactory results with 40 denier l3 filament crimped nylon yarn.

The rings may be mounted on carriers which are pivotal relative to the ring rail about horizontal axes perpendicular to the length of the rail, the carriers being coupled (preferably releasably) to a common actuator rod which is reciprocated endwise to effect pivotal tilting of the carriers relative to the ring rail.

In one embodiment, two ring carriers are pivotally mounted on a common support member which is secured to the ring rail by any suitable form of releasable connection, such as a manually operated mechanical catch or a switch-controlled electromagnet.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are fragmentary views showing enough of the ring rail mechanism of a strand winding mechanism for the invention to be understood, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation, and

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings, a portion of the ring rail is indicated at 10, and in generally well-known manner the rail is raised and lowered vertically by a suitable drive mechanism (now shown) to perform traverse strokes. The extent of the ring rail traverse strokes may be programmed in various ways, which form no part of the present invention and are well known in the art, to build packages having tapered ends. Rings 11 which traverse vertically with the rail 10 are concentric with and encompass rotating winding spindles carrying bobbins (not shown) and strand material (not shown) passes to the bobbins via travellers l2 slidable upon the rings.

Two rings 11 are shown in the drawings, and each is mounted on a carrier 13 in the form of a plate member having a vertically disposed perpendicular extension portion 14, the two extension portions 14 being pivotally mounted by anti-friction bearings 15 on respective laterally-extending arms 16 of a common support member 17. The latter is secured to the ring rail 10 by a releasable connection shown in the form of a springloaded catch mechanism 18 with an operating handle 19 for releasing and re-engaging it, although any other suitable releasable connection could be employed, such as a switch-controlled electromagnet.

The support member 17 is slidably mounted on guides in the form of two spaced vertical rods 20, and when the catch 18 is released the support member 17 and the two ring carriers 13 can be lowered bodily'relative to the ring rail 10 when the rail is either stationary or traversing, as is desirable at initial threading up or when repair of broken strands is necessary during winding. We have shown a common support member 17 for two carriers 13 and their rings III, the use of which is desirable for a textile machine with multiple processing stations each treating two strands, but it will be understood that each support member could have a single carrier and ring, and further that the carriers could be mounted directly on the ring rail for pivotal tilting movements.

The antifriction bearings 15 mount the carriers 13, and hence the rings 11, for pivotal tilting about horizontal axes perpendicular to the ring rail 10. Above the rail 10 is a common actuator rod 21 by means of which the carriers 13 and their rings 11 are pivotally tilted while the ring rail 10 is rising and falling during winding. Each carrier 13 has an upwardly extending arm 22 formed with a slot 23 in its top end portion. The actuator rod 21 carries laterally projecting pins 24 which engage in the slots 23, and the actuator rod 21 is reciprocated endwisein bearing sleeves 25 on the rail to effect pivotal tilting of the carriers 13 and the rings 11. Any suitable mechanism can-be used for reciprocating the actuator rod 21 to cause the rings 11 to pivot from one direction and angle of tilt to an equal and opposite direction and angle of vtilt at the beginning of each up and down traverse stroke of the ring rail 10, and this method of winding yarn provides an improved crosswinding effect in the package, with successively wound layers oppositely cross-wound; and also produces a more relaxed and softer wound package which can be stored without the crimp being affected and which unwinds readily withoutdrag. 7

As already described above, the catch 18 can be released to lower the support member 17 bodily relative to the ring rail 10, whether or not the rail is traversing and the actuator rod 21 reciprocating. When the support member is raised to re-connect it to the rail by reengaging the catch the carriers 13 and their upstanding arms 22 could be tilted, and to avoid any difficulty of re-engaging the pins 24 in the slots 23 of the arms 22, the upper extremity of each arm 22 is flared at 26 to provide a converging guide throat leading into the slot 23, so that re-engagement of the pins in the slots is automatic.

Suitable angles of tilt of the rings are in the range 2 to 10 in either direction of tilt.

In one example ofa ring rail mechanism in which the traverse stroke speed was millimetres per second, rapid reversal of a 4 tilt of the rings was effected during about the first 2 millimetres of each traverse stroke when winding packages of false twist crimped 40 denier l3 filament nylon yarn. Package density was about 58 shore hardness.

As previously stated, the benefit of the invention in producing improved packages is based upon the principle that the rings are pivotal so that the angle between the planes of the rings and the spindle axes is different for successive traverse strokes. It will be appreciated that although the foregoing description and example are largely devoted to the rings being pivoted between equal and opposite directions and angles of tilt as between one traverse stroke and the next, the invention is not so restricted although this is thought to be the best mode of operation. Thus the rings could be tilted in a first direction for one traverse stroke, then be tilted in the same direction but at a different angle or have their planes perpendicular to the spindle axes for the next traverse stroke, and then be tilted in a second opposite direction or tilted back in the first direction for the next traverse stroke.

What is claimed is:

1. In a strand winding mechanism of the type comprising winding spindles having upright axes, a vertically traversing ring rail extending horizontally and normal to the axes of said winding spindles, and a ringand-traveler mechanism for each winding spindle carried by said ring rail, the improvement comprising mounting means mounting each ring of the respective mechanism for pivotal tilting movement relative to said ring rail and the respective spindle about a substantially horizontal pivot axis; ring actuating means mounted on said ring rail movable relative thereto; and coupling means coupling said ring actuating mechanism with said rings for effecting simultaneous tilting of the latter about said pivot axes when said ring actuating means is moved relative to said ring rail.

2. Strand winding mechanism according to claim 1, said mounting means comprising carrier members supporting said rings, and pivot means pivotally mounting said carrier members relative to said ring rail for tilting of said carrier members about said pivot axes; said actuating means comprising an actuator rod operable for reciprocation endwise in the direction of the length of the ring rail, said coupling means coupling each carrier member with said actuator rod for the rod to effect simultaneous tilting of all the carrier members and their rings.

3. Strand winding mechanism according to claim 1, said mounting means comprising at least one support member, a releasable connector securing said support member to the ring rail, at least one carrier member supporting the respective rings, pivot means pivotally mounting said carrier member on said support member for tilting of said carrier member about said pivot axis which extends normal to the length of the ring rails, said actuating means comprising an actuator rod operable for reciprocation endwise in'the direction of the length of the ring rail; said coupling means releasably coupling each carrier member with said actuator rod for the rod to effect simultaneous tilting of all the carrier members and their rings, and upright guide members each slidably engaged with a respective one of said support members whereby said support members are selectively releasable from the ring rail, by operation of said releasable connector, to be lowered and raised relative to the ring rail upon said upright guide members.

4. In a method of winding strand material by the steps of vertically traversing a horizontal ring rail and laying turns of strand upon winding spindles having upright axes by respective ring-and-traveler mechanisms carried by said ring rail, the improvement comprising the step of effecting pivotal tilting movement of the rings relative to the spindle axes and the ring rail during vertical traversing of the ring rail, so as to incline the rings in one and in an opposite direction relative to the spindle axes and relative to said ring rail during successive transverse strokes of the latter.

5. Method according'to claim 4, and comprising the step of effecting the pivotal tilting from one direction and angle of tilt to an opposite direction and angle of tilt once during each vertical traverse stroke of the ring rail.

6. Method according to claim 4 and comprising the step of effecting the relative pivotaltilting one during each traverse stroke and at the beginning of each up and down traverse stroke of the ring rail.

7. Method according to claim 4, and comprising the step of effecting the relative pivotal tilting from one direction and angle of tilt to an opposite direction and angle of tilt once during each traverse stroke and at the beginning of each up and down traverse stroke of the ring rail. 

1. In a strand winding mechanism of the type comprising winding spindles having upright axes, a vertically traversing ring rail extending horizontally and normal to the axes of said winding spindles, and a ring-and-traveler mechanism for each winding spindle carried by said ring rail, the improvement comprising mounting means mounting each ring of the respective mechanism for pivotal tilting movement relative to said ring rail and the respective spindle about a substantially horizontal pivot axis; ring actuating means mounted on said ring rail movable relative thereto; and coupling means coupling said ring actuating mechanism with said rings for effecting simultaneous tilting of the latter about said pivot axes when said ring actuating means is moved relative to said ring rail.
 2. Strand winding mechanism according to claim 1, said mounting means comprising carrier members supporting said rings, and pivot means pivotally mounting said carrier members relative to said ring rail for tilting of said carrier members about said pivot axes; said actuating means comprising an actuator rod operable for reciprocation endwise in the direction of the length of the ring rail, said coupling means coUpling each carrier member with said actuator rod for the rod to effect simultaneous tilting of all the carrier members and their rings.
 3. Strand winding mechanism according to claim 1, said mounting means comprising at least one support member, a releasable connector securing said support member to the ring rail, at least one carrier member supporting the respective rings, pivot means pivotally mounting said carrier member on said support member for tilting of said carrier member about said pivot axis which extends normal to the length of the ring rails, said actuating means comprising an actuator rod operable for reciprocation endwise in the direction of the length of the ring rail; said coupling means releasably coupling each carrier member with said actuator rod for the rod to effect simultaneous tilting of all the carrier members and their rings, and upright guide members each slidably engaged with a respective one of said support members whereby said support members are selectively releasable from the ring rail, by operation of said releasable connector, to be lowered and raised relative to the ring rail upon said upright guide members.
 4. In a method of winding strand material by the steps of vertically traversing a horizontal ring rail and laying turns of strand upon winding spindles having upright axes by respective ring-and-traveler mechanisms carried by said ring rail, the improvement comprising the step of effecting pivotal tilting movement of the rings relative to the spindle axes and the ring rail during vertical traversing of the ring rail, so as to incline the rings in one and in an opposite direction relative to the spindle axes and relative to said ring rail during successive transverse strokes of the latter.
 5. Method according to claim 4, and comprising the step of effecting the pivotal tilting from one direction and angle of tilt to an opposite direction and angle of tilt once during each vertical traverse stroke of the ring rail.
 6. Method according to claim 4 and comprising the step of effecting the relative pivotal tilting one during each traverse stroke and at the beginning of each up and down traverse stroke of the ring rail.
 7. Method according to claim 4, and comprising the step of effecting the relative pivotal tilting from one direction and angle of tilt to an opposite direction and angle of tilt once during each traverse stroke and at the beginning of each up and down traverse stroke of the ring rail. 